Chris Elsberry: Quinnipiac women know about 'all in'

Updated 1:19 am, Sunday, March 3, 2013

HAMDEN -- Ideas, especially basketball ideas, aren't supposed to pop up in a head coach's mind, especially when that head coach is relaxing near the beach at the Jersey Shore with a glass of wine in her hand. But that's when the light bulb popped on over Tricia Fabbri's head. And the more she thought about it, the more that idea made perfect sense.

After posting a 22-win season and getting within an eyelash of winning the Northeast Conference tournament -- a win that would have meant Quinnipiac's first-ever invitation to the NCAA's Big Dance -- Fabbri took some time off with her family to decompress. Her basketball team was young, but talented, and aside from losing two seniors, Kari Goodchild and Jacinda Dunbar, everyone would be back next season.

And as the waves washed across the sand, lightning struck.

I have depth, Fabbri thought. I have experience. I'm going to play everybody.

What? Play everybody? Nobody does that.

Well, Fabbri has.

And the results? Heading into the final game of the regular season Monday, Quinnipiac is 26-2, a perfect 17-0 in the NEC (having clinched the regular-season championship) and has won 18 in a row. The Bobcats are ranked No. 9 in the latest mid-major women's basketball poll, and Fabbri is looking pretty darn smart.

"I didn't think it was going to have the impact for the season that it actually had," said Fabbri, who played collegiately at Fairfield and lives in Stratford, of her five-in, five-out rotation. "People say, `You play a lot of players ... you have the hockey lines with all the changes.' That started because we wanted everyone to play. We wanted everyone to have an equal opportunity."

Of the 13 players who have seen action this season, nine average at least 13 minutes a game, with Felicia Barron's 27.8-minute average topping the list.

Everyone plays. Everyone contributes. Everyone's happy.

"Our talent is so deep, we never felt `first five, second five,'" Fabbri said. "We demand pressure on the ball. We turn people over and we don't turn it over. That's why we win a lot of games. To do that over the course of a game for 40 minutes and to do that over the course of a season, 30 games, you'd better have a lot of bodies to be able to do that.

"That's how we're able to create the chemistry and show how tight-knit and what a great group of ladies we have. Each one is totally selfless. I'm amazed that they're all for one goal. You have to have that mindset to win championships."

The experiment started in August with a 10-day trip to Italy, where the Bobcats visited Rome, Florence, Venice and Lake Como, beating All-Star Italia (67-59), Montecchio (73-44) and Amici del Campetto (82-50).

"We saw our team flourish with the amount of talented players we had," Fabbri said. "And we thought maybe that was something we could do with the kind of pace we wanted to play at and the pressure we wanted to bring. We started it in Italy and everyone was real comfortable with it from that very first game, subbing five in, five out.

"We just outlasted and tired those teams out and we won those games going away. We told the first five to give us a hard three or four minutes and then the next five, you do the same thing. What it's done is every player knows they're going to have an opportunity to play. Everyone has had their role lead to a victory during the season."

And the mindset carried over to the regular season when the Bobcats opened with seven straight wins. And since a loss to Georgia Tech on Dec. 29, Quinnipiac has rolled through the NEC schedule, winning all 17 games to date.

"We're doing really good things, we're accomplishing what we want to accomplish, but we still haven't climbed the mountain and rang the bell," Fabbri said. "We're trying to enjoy it but remain focused. This is a very, very tight team. We've always had good chemistry, but this is clearly one of the best. They've all really clicked and really elevated the program where we've won 47 games in the last two years and the second year's not done."

And while the NEC regular-season title is wrapped up, Quinnipiac has never won the tournament crown (and the NCAA bid that goes with it), twice settling for WNIT appearances, in 2007-08 and 2011-12.

"They're united in their goal (of making the NCAA's)," Fabbri said. "I don't know what's going to happen these next couple of weeks, but they're united in what they want to achieve. I've never seen how focused a young group is to achieve that one goal. Everyone's a part of it. That's been amazing to witness."